Bynum's absence more glaring by the day

PHILADELPHIA --- Andrew Bynum has plans for the All-Star break, but not the plans the Sixers had in mind, back when they were parading him through the Constitution Center for a pep rally or a propaganda mission, whichever worked.

Back then, they expected him in that game, vogue-ing for the paparazzi with each trip down the Houston floor. He was the best center on the planet, or something like that. He was a star, a franchise-definer, a reason to splinter a roster that had just gone seven games into a second playoff round. That included moving Nick Vucevic, who has become the fifth-leading rebounder in the NBA.

“Orlando really wanted me more than Philly,” Vucevic said Monday. “Philly wanted the best big man, and he’s hurt. When he gets back, he’ll help them a lot. Orlando really wanted me, liked me. Let’s just look at it that way.”

Bynum, The Best Big Man, hasn’t played a shift as a Sixer, not even in the preseason. He has a bone bruise in his knee and worries that playing will cause a deeper bone bruise in his knee. So he works out on his own on some anti-gravity contraption while the Sixers try to keep a season from floating into space.

They won their third straight Monday,78-61 over the Magic, which was without four of its best players, all injured, guard Jameer Nelson included. And as for Bynum? He shows up for games and is spotted at practice. For a 7 o’clock tip Monday, he surfaced in the Wells Fargo Center locker room about 6:20, on time, if not early. Allen Iverson might have done that, been criticized, then gone out and provided 25 and 10. But that’s when everything seemed bigger, no matter what the height-and-weight tables say.

“I’ll see him and say ‘Hi,’” Doug Collins said. “And I watch him. You can see him starting to move around a little more. I think the big thing with him is that he just had the injections in both of his knees, and he came back, and I think he feels good about that. I really don’t talk to him much about that. I am trying to focus on the guys we have playing. But he is starting to feel better. Hopefully, that’s going to continue.”

It’s February in a season that didn’t even begin with a lockout. So any time now would be fine. Bynum says one knee feels fine, but not the other, and that he still doesn’t have a specific date planned to resume serious basketball practice. But the All-Star Break is next week, and again, Bynum will be busy.

“Actually, I might go home, might go to L.A. for a bit,” Bynum said. “Then come back and be back at it, Sunday or Monday.”

So Bynum is essentially plotting a vacation, the kind that players earn, bought and paid for with months of rebounds and points and bruises suffered in games, not someplace else. Yet there is no in-house uproar, no panic and few complaints, even if Bynum is collecting about $16.8 million.

Nothing is new there, which in itself is an issue. But it was relevant Monday, since the Sixers were willing to stuff Vucevic, their 2011 first-round draft choice, into a package for Bynum, desperate as they were to make a scene.

In their defense, Vucevic couldn’t, wouldn’t, didn’t rebound for them as a rookie, and so stood around while errant shots were bouncing that Collins was right to slam him onto the bench, ignoring him in the playoffs. But now Vucevic rebounds everything, and on both ends. He had 29 rebounds against the Miami Heat on New Year’s Eve and 14 Monday to complement nine points.

Spencer Hawes was the best center in the game Monday, collecting 21 points and 14 rebounds, blurring the absence of Bynum and the presence of Vucevic. But that’s a temporary boost, and the Sixers need something more lasting. Bynum would work, not that he is close to a return.